How do you (personally) deal with injury-related depression?

I could write a book on this. I have had a traumatic and permanent injury that caused me to be entirely sendentary for two years. After recovering from two surgeries and resting for a year (second year) I realized my pain was not going to improve and I needed to exercise in order to feel better mentally. Being sedentary makes me feel worse than being active an in pain. Mentally, working out keeps me going.

I would advise that if your doctor has not approved you to workout, find ways to workout with the non-injured part of your body. Lower body injured? Lift upper body and do it all from a seated position. Arms injured? Squat and lunge body weight. Do whatever you can to keep moving. When I first began my return to the gym, I had to make all exercises seated and did a maximum of 5 min on the bike at a time, using an air bike where I could go 1 min on with legs, 1 min off with legs, using arms only.

Scale scale scale. Be creative. Watch your diet to stay fit - it's all made in the kitchen anyway, in regards to physique. Focus on what you can do, not what you can't do.

/r/xxfitness Thread